The Moon
Credits – Astrobites
- Moon is the only natural satellite of planet Earth
- The first theory regarding the evolution of the Moon was given by Sir George Darwin in 1838.
- It says that initially, the earth and moon formed a single rapidly rotating body.
- As a result, the mass of both turned into a dumbbell-shaped body.
- Eventually, the dumbbell-shaped body broke.
- Some theories also suggest that the current moon was actually separated from what we see as a large depression in the Pacific Ocean.
- The present scientific community, however, doesn’t accept either of the above theories.
- Scientists believe that due to what is called the “big splat”, the formation of the moon as a satellite of earth took place.
- The collision of a body, two to three times bigger than the moon, resulted in a broken part of the earth.
- This broken material kept orbiting the earth, and eventually led to the formation of the moon.
- The moon is about 4.44 billion years old.
